The long-time radio disc jockey has been hired by River Valley Radio to run his own station, Sharpe 99.3 FM. Dunaway made his goal clear from the start: He’s doing rock and roll radio his way, and he’s not going to apologize for it.

“The average radio station is going to run 250 to 350 songs into the ground,” he said. “I don’t play by those rules. If it was good once upon a time, it’s good now. If it rocks, I’m going to play it.

“I call the show an unapologetic rocker,” he added. “It’s an entertaining rock radio show with swagger. We’re going to play music that caters to the people that like their late ’60s Jimi Hendrix and Black Sabbath, all the way to the ’70s with Van Halen and KISS. The ’80s — we’ve probably got more hair metal bands on our station than any other free radio station in Central Arkansas.”

While Dunaway’s not making any apologies, he is keeping his ear to the ground. “The response has been 90 percent positive and 10 percent ‘I hate your guts,’” he said. “But if I honestly thought that more people hated this radio station than liked it, I would say that this probably isn’t going to work. But the amount of love it has gotten far outweighs the hate.”

And to the people who despise it? “You’re nobody until somebody hates you,” he said. “That’s my motto.”

Dunaway, who wears glasses and a St. Louis Cardinals baseball cap, might seem an odd candidate for River Valley’s radio iconoclast. But, as with any radio personality, it’s all in the voice. And the voice defines his personality.

His voice is reminiscent of Sam Kinison, a slightly high-pitched tone that ascends an octave to enunciate his jokes. Where Kinison was prone to rage, Dunaway is quick with a smile and a laugh. He is quick to admit he has an ego, but balances it with self-deprecating humor.

“People come up to me and say, ‘I’ve been listening to your voice for 27 years.’ I listen to my voice every day — for 24 hours, every day. I don’t know how you people can stand it,” he said.

“When you’re in radio, you have an ego, and you can’t be in radio without it,” he continued. “An ego gives you the confidence to do what you do. Arrogance is what you don’t want. Arrogance is when you think you’re king of the hill and you treat everyone else with less respect. But radio isn’t a ‘me’ thing, radio is about what that market needs.”

It’s no surprise, with his approach to radio, that Dunaway was attracted to the attitude of rock and roll. He cites KISS and Van Halen as his favorite bands, and his career as a disc jockey began one day in November of 1986. He had just graduated high school and was bagging groceries at Kroger when his parents called him at work and told him to quit his job and come home immediately.

“So I quit, and I came home,” he said. “And I was told that I was going to go to Great Britain to find myself. I was going to live out of a backpack, and they would provide a budget.” His parents only gave one stipulation: that when he came back, he had to know what he wanted to do with his life.

Dunaway backpacked through the United Kingdom for 6 1/2 weeks. While in Ireland, Dunaway went to see the Blarney Stone, fabled to give anyone who kisses it the gift of gab. “Well, I French-kissed that baby,” he said.

Dunaway’s career began at the Broadcast Center in St. Louis before he moved to Little Rock in the late ’80s to work his way through the ranks. After Magic 105 flipped its format, Dunaway moved to The Point 94.1, where he worked for four years with Mike Kennedy.

Dunaway and The Point parted ways in July.

Rich Moellers, the general manager at Max Media of Arkansas, read an article published about Dunaway in Arkansas Business two weeks later. He reached out to Dunaway with the idea of branding a radio station after him.

“It’s an honor to have a station named after you, but I want the record to show that this wasn’t some arrogant clause that I required to come here,” Dunnaway said. “It wasn’t my idea to name the station after me.”

And despite Sharpe’s exposure in the area, he is hesitant to embrace the label of a celebrity.

“I always say, a celebrity has fame in fortune. Sure, quite a few people know my name and might associate me with a good time they had in their lives, but there’s no fortune. It all boils down to, you do radio for the passion of it.”

Dunaway also plays drums for The Dirty Lindseys, a local band that plays in several venues in the area including the Front Street Grill in Dardanelle. For people interested in Sharpe 99.3, its website is www.sharpe993.com.

What an amazing, refreshing change to the River Valley area! We welcome Sharpe Dunaway with open arms and look forward to rocking every day! We shouldn't keep this in the River Valley. Let's share Sharpe993.com with the world! I posted it on my facebook and some old friends were extremely excited because they can't get House of Hair where their at, but now they can!!

Thank you Rich Moellers for giving us the BEST of Sharpe Dunaway in Sharpe99.3!!!! You have the BEST radio station in Arkansas hands down and how you choose to run with it and expand the coverage of it...is entirely up to you, but Little Rock NEEDS and BEGS YOU to hear this station!!!

I appreciate what the guy is doing, but what happened to the station he replaced? It was the best part about living here--you could hear James Brown, Jackson Brown, and then some George Harrison or Beatles back to back. I miss that station would love to see it return. I can find the same old, tired KISS songs on 94.1 or a million other radio stations on the internet. I'm glad they're playing Nights with Alice Cooper, but the rest of it is just boring hair rock from the 80's for the most part.